Last week was the NAB in Vegas, one of the biggest annual trade show where media industry professionals exhibit their new products. And the NAB confirmed it: 2012 is the year of the camera. Indeed, back in January at the CES we saw the RED Scarlet X and Canon C300. A few days ago at the NAB, Canon announced two more cameras: the c500 and the EOS 1D C. Sony presented the new NEX FS700 and Motion Research the new Phamtom Miro M320s and finally Blackmagic Design its Cinema Camera (I'll come back to this one)... And the new battlegrounds for pretty much all of these cameras are 4K and  super slow motion. Great, but let's face it, with a price range between $10.000 and $40.000, these cameras are clearly targeting the broadcasting and cinema industry, not the indie filmmaker.

And that's where I believe camera manufacturers are making a mistake. Let me explain.

3 years ago, when the 5DMkII came out, it took everyone by surprise because of 3 criteria: Price, form factor and sensor size. A relatively cheap and compact full frame camera that could shoot cinematic images for under $3000. This was THE camera for the masses that allowed anyone to express their creativity. Just browse Vimeo or Youtube and you'll see how much videos have evolved in the past 3 years. There is a huge market of indie filmmakers, wedding videographers, video journalists, students... That cannot afford RED or ARRI cameras but are looking for something better than DV camcorders. There are prosumers cameras within the same price range as the Mk II or Mk III, but once you've started working with large sensors with endless focal length possibilities, it's hard to come back to traditional camcorders.

Canon EOS 1D-C

The 'problem' with HDSLRs is that they are first still cameras and thus many essential video features are missing: No proper sound recording, focus peaking, zebras... Furthermore, videos are heavily compressed which means no much room for colour correcting or grading in post. What this indie market wants is what made the success of HDSLRs: price, form factor and sensor size  but in a pro video camera body.

So now, in 2012 we finally see those cameras coming to the market... BUT with only 2 of the 3 crucial criteria: form factor and sensor size. Yes but what about this huge market of indie filmmakers looking to upgrade? The reason why they are not buying an EPIC or an ALEXA it's because of their prices! Manufacturers created the cameras indie filmmakers were looking for, but priced them for the hollywood industry only (where there are already many alternatives).

BlackMagic Cinema Camera

Blackmagic Design is so far the only one who understood the need for a cheap yet professional camera. It was a huge surprise when they announced last week the Blackmagic Cinema Camera. A 2.5K sensor with 13 stops of dynamic range recording in 12 bits RAW format with industry standard ports, (including the new thunderbolt technology) and shipped with DaVinci Resolve for $2995 (around £1900)! Cheaper than a 5D MkIII!  This is the only camera on the market right now targeting the HDSLR users that do not need the still features but want better video ones for a similar price range.

So if a company like BlackMagic who had never done cameras before, managed to release something like this for less than 3000$ there is no reason the other more experienced manufacturers can't do the same. Sure, the other cameras have larger 4K sensors which are very expensive to produce, but  that's probably where they could differentiate the low and high end market. Realistically, with barely any 4K TV or monitors on the market, I don't think indie filmmakers feel the need to shoot 4K. Shooting less compressed footages with more dynamic range and exposure latitude is far more appealing. Look at Canon's c300, if it wasn't priced at $16.000 it would have been an awesome camera for indie filmmakers! Canon's EOS 1D-C could have been the answer but costs $15.000! Sony is making a pretty damn good job with the FS700 but it's still $8000 (we're getting closer)...

I hope Canon, Panasonic, Sony and the likes do realise there is a huge demand for cheap yet professional cameras out there that they are missing because of these price tags. I really hope there is something coming soon... Maybe with the rumoured C100?

Sony Nex FS700

What do you think of all this? Do you think manufacturers are making the right moves? What about BlackMagic's strategy and their new Cinema Camera? Feel free to use the comment section below!

I month or so ago I spent a weekend in Venice with my girlfriend. It is a beautiful place to visit with so many narrow streets, channels, bridges, restaurants... Getting lost in them is probably best way to discover Venice. Taking photos was however quite challenging for two reasons: One because of the strong haze coming from the sea washing out the colours in the highlights. Secondly I had to find the right balance between spending time with my girlfriend taking photos

I know I have already shared those photos on different social networks, but for those who don't follow me on them, here is a selection of the best ones just for you.

I love visual effects and spend hours watching after effects tutorials, but so far I haven't got the opportunity to use them in one of my short films. I have a 3min short film to write shoot and edit for my Advanced Production module and my first thought was: find a story where you will need visual effects! So right now I have loads of visual FX I want to try out in a very short storytelling.. Tricky! My story is about a teleportation device. I'm not saying anything else as I am not sure how I'm going to tackle the story yet. Anyway, here's a test I did this morning to try out very slow motion and some visual effects:

Follow Up

Back in December, I wrote a blog post about the Heritage Footsteps Project I volunteered for. By then, we were at the preproduction stage, mainly getting contacts. We now have shot the two parts of the interview. The first interview was done in the Library inside the library's alcove. The exact same one Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels used to work in. The second interview was recorded in the Crescent Pub where we believe they used to hang out (there's no proof of it although it's very likely they did). So here's an explanation of the setups we used and some thoughts about FCPX and multicam editing.

The Library

The setup was fairly easy in the library. The three large windows surrounding the reading desk acted as a natural fill light while an available halogen spotlight as a key light. We used a Canon 5D MkII (with a Canon 50 f/1.4) for a close up on our interviewee and a Canon 550D on a konova slider (with a Sigma 10-20 f/3.5) for a wider shot covering the interviewee and the alcove. The sound was recorded separately on a Zoom H4n with Sennheiser G3 wireless lavalier mic.

The Pub

For the pub, as we were shooting the interview during opening hours and for health and safety reasons, we decided to set up the interview close to the windows to get as much natural light as possible allowing us to reduce the number of lights, stands and cables people could potentially trip on. In this setup, the natural light was acting as a key light, while I added one dedolight as a back light and another one to brighten up just a tiny bit the background. Once again, I used a 5D MkII for the close up and a 550D for a wider shot (with this time a Sigma 30 f/1.4). The sound was recorded with the same duo: Zoom H4n + Sennheiser G3 wireless.

Post Production

We still have to shoot the cutaways but in the meantime, I have started cutting of the interviews. As I don't have a tight deadline, I chose to edit this project in Final Cut Pro X (10.0.3). I wanted to try out the new multicam/syncing sound features. So far so good. In both cases, FCPX didn't have any problem syncing the 2 video feeds and the master sound. Cutting between video angles while keeping the master audio is fairly easy to achieve. On the downside, I noticed my Macbook Pro i7 (8Gb RAM) sometimes struggled to play smoothly the 2 angles simultaneously while I'm cutting between them.

Someone lent me a set of 3 Dedolights for the weekend. The quality and the control over the beam of light is just great. Anyway, I was in the mood for a film noir visual style experiment the other day. I wanted to see how I could use the spotlights and the shadows to draw the attention on specific details to tell a story. In the crime scene I had in mind, the knife would be the first element to catch the attention, while the long shadow of the killer would lead the spectator's gaze to the victim's hand. Here's a quick sketch of my idea:

And here's the end result:

The setup is pretty simple: I put my camera in the kitchen on a dutch angle, pointing at the door frame. On its left side, I placed one Dedolight pointing at the door with a very narrow beam of light to cast just the shadow of the killer's hand and knife. On the right hand side of the camera, I placed another Dedoglight, less focused, pointing at the ground where the victim's hand will be. Finally the third light was outside the room, full power and wide open to draw the killer's silhouette and catch a long shadow on the ground going toward the victim.

Ok, the setup was fairly easy. The challenge however was to be at the same time behind the camera and in front of it as the killer AND the victim! Here's what I did: I have radio triggers that I usually use to remotely trigger my flashes. There's normally one emitter that goes on the camera hot shoe and a receiver that you plug to the flash. In this case, I kept the emitter in my hand and plugged the receiver on the wired remote control port of the camera so that I could trigger the camera remotely. I took two shots: 1 as the killer and 1 as the victim. The final image was done in post with Photoshop where I merged the two shots together. So that's how I solved the challenges of this particular set and, to me, this is even more interesting than the final output

In one of our advanced production class, we were asked each of us to set up and light a scene using specific equipments. Here's what we had to use:

1. 2 Readheads
2. 1 blonde light
3. 1 Kino Flo 400
4. 1 camera dolly
5. 1 5D MkII + Redrock Studio Rig and 50mm f/1.4
6. Our imagination

For my setup, I decided to go for a examination room with 2 students in the foreground and 1 examiner in the background. Student A would look above her shoulder, check the examiner before passing a message to Student B.

Lighting Setup

I didn't want to flood the room with light. Instead, I wanted to control it to get a more dramatic look. I decided to use the 2 redhead lights as key lights on the foreground subjects. With the help of my colleagues, we placed the lights pointing downward at their respective subject with the barn doors quite closed to avoid spilling and diffusers on to soften the shadows. Behind them we placed the Kino Flo 400 as a hair light to separate them from the background. Finally we used the blonde light to illuminate my background subject. The light was used without diffuser and positioned in a way to cast a long and harsh shadow of the subject on the wall.

Camera Setup

Because, the camera would be moving from left to right, I wanted the dolly track to be placed parallel to the foreground subject. The camera would be first focusing on foreground subject. When Student A look above her shoulder: slight dolly right and focus pull to reveal background subject, then dolly left and focus pull back to front subject. When Student A is passing the message: dolly right following the action and reveal Student B.

For a shallower depth of field I opened the aperture to something like f/2.8 which was way to bright with all these light so we used a ND8 filter to darken the image. We had a problem with white balance tho. Indeed, the filter we used gave a violet tint to the image and I couldn't figure out how to get rid of it. Thanks to one of my colleague, we finally understood how to use properly the custom white balance feature of the 5DMkII and counter balance the violet tint. I learnt something here!

The Result

The scene would have required a few rehearsal takes to get the camera moves and the focus pulling perfectly in sync with the action. But because each of us had to setup a different scene, we didn't had time to rehears. Anyway, for a first try (this was the very first take - We did 2) I'm quite happy with the end result. In post I slightly colour graded the image. Sounds wise, I removed the original audio and replaced it with ambiance and foley sounds (room noise, ticking clock, paper russle). Let me know what you think in the comment section below!

Apple just released a major update (10.0.3) for Final Cut Pro X which includes multicam editing! Different video angles can now be automatically
syncing based on time of the day, timecode, markers, or audio waveforms. You can work seamlessly with different codecs, frame sizes, and frame rates without conversion, which is just great! I made a schoolboy mistake recently where I used my A camera at 25p and the B one at 23.98 and they both had to be synced with my H4n master audio.. I wish I had FCPX back then.

In addition to Multicam, the new update also brings Media relink (yes!), advanced chroma key features, XML 1.1 and broadcast monitoring (in beta).

You can download the update free from the Mac App Store

While there're still no official announcements yet, photographer Stephen Oach posted captures of a Canon employee using an unidentified Canon body with a 200-400mm lens prototype in Kenya... You don't need more to generate an online firestorm amongst photographers!

This camera can either be the long awaited 5D Mk III or the future 7D MkII. The body looks very similar to the 7D but sports a larger LCD screen, doesn't have a pop up flash, the Q button is now on the right side underneath the joystick and there's a new 'Rate' button. Finally there also seems to be a new joystick on the removable battery grip. Because we're getting closer to the release of a 5D MkIII than a 7D MkII, and the no pop up flash thing I would tend to think this is a 5DMkIII. In the other hand it looks so similar to the 7D... Perhaps Canon is planning on merging the 5D and 7D? I don't know how but by looking at the pictures, people say it's a full frame body..? Regarding the the 200-400mm lens prototype, the canon employee said it should be released in March or April.

According to CanonRumours, there could be a CPS event planned in Yokohama at CP+ which is between the 9th and 12th February that "usually lead to some kind of announcement"...

Crossing fingers!

via Canon Rumours and Aperture Academy 

I went to London over the weekend to visit my girlfriend and play the tourist in the United Kingdom's capital. If you haven't done it already, I really recommend visiting London. So many places, so many things happening in the streets! However because of the cold weather, it was easier to take pictures of iconic places rather than street activities (everyone was rushing into stores and Starbucks). I was also really hoping to see the traditional dragon dances in Chinatown (chinese new year) but unfortunately I didn't get to see them. Anyway, here are some of the photos I took over these few days. Everything was shot with a Canon 550D and a Sigma 10-20mm. For some shots I had my tripod, for others, I had to lean on whatever I could find. On a side note, it's funny how some spots are very popular for photographers. Go on the millennium bridge on the opposite side of Saint Paul's Cathedral during sunset and you'll see

Nikon announced its latest top end camera the other day: the D4. A full frame body, lighter, faster, shooting in even darker conditions. With a price tag of around $6000, the D4 is Nikon responses to Canon's 1Dx. Regarding the video aspect, I'm happy to see Nikon finally back in the game with interesting features not even Canon offers yet.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Nikon's top end camera can finally shoot Full-HD 24p/30p and 720 - 60p. Ok this is not new but finally on par with Canon (we're still missing 1080 at 60p from both).  Nikon is not going for All-i but b-frame encoding at 24 mbps. More interesting: the D4 is the first HDSLR that can send clean uncompressed video output (8bit 4:2:2) and have a simultaneous live view and monitor out feature (apparently only work when no cards are in the camera). This means you can use an external field recorder like the Atomos Ninja, bypass the 29min recording limit while having better image quality. For now the Canon 1Dx doesn't offer clean output by fear of interfering with Canon pro video side but with Nikon's move, I wouldn't be surprised if they change their mind before the release in February.

Audio wise I'm very pleased to see that Nikon implemented a stereo headphone jack for audio monitoring. Again that's a first in HDSLR, a very welcomed one! I'm really - REALLY - hoping to see Canon do the same. The D4 also offers a stereo mic input with on screen audio level metering that can be adjusted manually in a 20 steps range.

The Crop feature in movie mode is worth mentioning as well. You can choose between full frame, 1.5x and 2.7x crop while keeping a full-HD image allowing you to vary the field of view of your lens focal length (a 100mm prime lens can become a 150 or 270mm lens). This can be very handy in some situations but I'm guessing there will be a loss in quality due to the downsizing. Nikon announced reduced moire and aliasing, something all DSLR are struggling with so it's nice to see nikon working on it. Finally the Nikon D4 offers an HTTP interface for remote control (via ethernet or wifi) that is optimised for iOS devices.

video feature run through

Click here to view the embedded video.

Documentary shot on the Nikon D4

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